These founding members originally met at 426 S. Main St., now the parking lot next to Norman Flooring Covering. Rev. George Noble was the founding minister.

Wanda Mayfield, the church’s organist, said the church relocated two years later to its present location at the corner of Grand Avenue and Seventh Street with the first sanctuary built in 1889.

Today’s church was started in 1940 and finished a year later. Mayfield said church members paid as they built, using as much of the original church’s lumber as they could. It now holds a 300-member congregation.

“I would say it’s a traditional congregation who have a wonderful history of being faithful to God and his Church with an eagerness to see what God has in store for the future,” Rev. Clefton Vaughan said.

This congregation will celebrate its’ 125th anniversary in Stuttgart on Sunday. Vaughan said a brief 9 a.m. worship service would be held in the original Main Street location.

The congregation would then walk from there to the present location for the 10 a.m. worship service. A potluck and program will follow.

Mayfield said former ministers and/or their surviving spouses would help celebrate the occasion with a special recognition to be held.

The celebration is befitting for the church, which has continuously sought to help its community. Grand Avenue’s involvement includes the Interfaith Community Church Ministries (ICCM) Food Bank, Boy and Girl Scouts, and a “Tweens” ministry to fifth and sixth graders.

The church also has United Methodist Women, United Methodist Men, youth and United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) groups. Vaughan said part of the benefit of being a United Methodist is that the worldwide denomination has national and international ministries that allow people to help without being present.

Vaughan said there is a good mix of young and old members at the church with a lot of families. It makes for what Mayfield describes as a “friendly, loving” church that’s “busy in all we do.”

To learn more about Grand Avenue, visit gaumc.com. Sunday worship service is at 10 a.m. at 705 South Grand Ave.